The Two Towers [Encounters 14 & 15 (Skill Challenge)]

Now allied against the enemies of Gardmore, Berrian and Lord Padraig ask our heroes to clean out the Watchtower so it may be used as a base of operations against the Orcs occupying the Abbey. Xandrian Velfarren and three Paladins of Bahamut were last seen more than 100 years ago fighting for that very tower, so Berrian asks the party to look for any clues to his father’s disappearance there, and sends his sister, Analstra to accompany them.

Nostalgio has had an uneasy feeling about this tower ever since seeing it afar it soon after entering the Feygrove. “It looks unsolid. As if the heat waves of the sun distort it, even when the air is cool.”
So the party approaches carefully – suspicions, he fires an arrow at the walls – but instead of bouncing off or chipping the stone, it sticks and the walls give a little, sending out concentric rings as if a stone was dropped into a still pool of water.
Immediately, the wall bleeds black ooze. Two large clumps fall to the ground and start to move toward them, only to be quickly dispatched by the wizards, Edryd & Florynsael.

They approach the walls to find them warm and giving to the touch – and the door they see is not real. “What trickery is this?” barks Agüero. “Clearly the disaster of Gardmore has changed this tower”, responds Florynsael.
Shut asks, “How do we get in?”. The dead black oozes start to float back toward the building, passing through the wall, which opens like a sphincter to allow them to enter. Shute catches a ride on one of the shiny ebony bodies through to the other sides, and her companions do the same.

Inside is as if entering a nightmare. The floor is no longer stone, but breathing…

The walls are alive, undulating and trying to grab hold of anything that gets too close. And the black oozes are floating toward a door, in the shape of a giant Card from the Deck across a black chasm.

Agüero attempts what would otherwise be an easy leap across the gap…

…only to have the shifting floor and a distorted sense of distance betray his footing!

Shute decides to attempt bridge made of Giant cards, only to have them come alive (the are Mimic’s posing as cards) and attack…

… and the chasm is filled with more black oozes, including a spawning pool that is also alive!

It was a challenge, but they got the oozes and mimic’s under control. Edryd placed a card from his collection against the wall where the oozes were exiting, and it unclenched enough for passage…

Shute: “Where ARE we?”. Edryd: “I think this is a piece of the Far Realm, pulled into this place during the catastrophe, it is only going to get weirder.”

{Play note: At this point, the power went out in my house, but given how trippy this encounter is, we continued…}

Accompanying the black globs through this space it seems that they are also moving through the “real” tower at the same time. They now feel like they are floating in space. The oozes keep flying upward, but our heroes don’t have that much control over their direction.

Shute decides to bounce of an ooze toward what is left of the floor, and probes about with her hands until she feels through to the staircase, hiding in the “real” dimension. “We’re in two places at once. Be careful and follow me.”

…until there is only space below them and thousands of Cards flying out to infinity!

It seems that each card is a doorway to more danger, with a hideous monster waiting behind each one.

Shute loses her way and floats toward an open card-door with a monster waiting to eat her, but she is able to gain purchase by pushing off the door-frame.

It becomes obvious that three identical doors are larger than the others… So they decide to open them simultaneously.

They all lead to the same room with a floor that is obviously from the original watchtower, so they step through…

And encounter the most hellish room of all, the floors are shifting, disappearing, and attacking, and there are 5 horrendously misshapen monsters present – the
most threatening is a Beholder.

The Beholder is initially curious about how walked into this – a prison that has made it quite mad.

Analastra recognizes one of the monsters as being the twisted form of her father, Zandrian. “These must be the Paladins! We must get them out of here.”

So – the players negotiate with the Beholder: “If we get you out of here, you give us your cards and we’ll part ways.”

Beholder: “I don’t care about the cards, but I think you’re trapped here as well as I am!”
Edryd: “Give us your cards, and we’ll fix this mess.” Then whispering to his allies: “We’ll have, 12 cards then – if the cards caused this realm to join with ours, certainly they can rend the connection.”

They gather the cards, and distributing 4 to each group at each card-door they hold one each into each corner.

There is a horrible tearing sound as dimensions are separated, and the far realm snaps back into the eather where it belongs, leaving the party, beholder, and the distorted last-century heroes standing on the highest floor of the real Watchtower.

The Beholder floats up the stairs to the roof and away – out of sight, while the heroes quickly head down the newly restored tower to take their damaged goods back to Berrian’s Camp.

Quickly the immerse the aberrations into the Font of Ioun, curing the distortion, but not restoring their minds.

The Arcanian’s Lab and Study [Encounters 5 & 6]

After resting overnight, they hear a call via the box from Lord Padraig “I’ve sent as many men as I can to man the watchtower to shore it up for defense and as an observation post. They’ll be there sometime in the afternoon. They are at a hard march, so they will need your (and elvish) reinforcements.”

Separately, Berrian consults with Florynsael:
“We must discuss this artifact, the deck of cards you used to save my father. It is clearly very powerful and dangerous – and what you did: separating the planes – that is unprecedented!

I’m not sure I trust the cards with anyone but you (humans can be fickle, and that goblin… well..)

But there is a tower in the heart of the village, once the home of a human wizard… if there’s anything that will help us understand what happened in the watchtower, that’s the first place I would check. Go to the wizard’s tower and look for information about this dimensional rift, or anything you can find about the Far Realm."

Of course, the party already had reason to visit this tower – to recover the Winterbole Codex – so they agree to go immediately.

“Hurry, you must return in time to meet Padraig’s garrison for the Watchtower.”

In order to get to the wizard’s lab, they decide to go via the Dragon’s Roost so the can sneak down to the tower from above and behind. This will also allow them to drop the three Paladins of Bahamut with Sir Oakley, who swears to restore their sanity, no matter how long it takes.

They managed to sneak down with hardly any detection. Actually, they notice no patrols and the density of Orcs seemed lower than last time they were here.

The front alcove looks like it might be guarded by Gargoyles…

But something has already killed them, to the party advances to the main lab.

Not unlike wizard’s labs they’ve seen before, except for that huge bloody ancient cloth covering something in the center of the room…

Removing the cloth reveals an unmoving golem, with a female human head attached to a huge male body!

Just as they are deciding what to do, the are surprised by a massive attack from behind the furniture, pillars, and staircases!

But eventually the Irregulars are able defeat the Golem, and isolate their foes and convince them to give up their cards and leave – forever.

They then head up the stairs into the wizard’s study. Strangely, the air gets colder and colder as they climb up the tower.

Unexpectedly, the wizard is still present – even though he should have died nearly 100 years ago. And he has undead companions (not to mention a whole bunch of bodies frozen in giant ice blocks.)

The wizard is clearly in some undead state, but still can talk. He seems interested in collecting some more companions, but to distract the party he agrees to let them take the Codex. He points to one of the giant ice blocks and says “My apprentice has it, you (pointing at Edryd), take it out!”. Pointing his wand at the block, it opens two arms sized holes so that he can reach in.

Edryd puts his arms in the block, only to find them instantly frozen in place. But, rather than panic, he simply activates his flame-aura to melt his way free.

This draws the interest of the blue mage, who says “Could it be? Come here boy! I want to get a good look at you.”

Edryd approaches and the blue mage utters a guttural sound, which Edryd somehow knows is a proper name of some sort. “Yes! I can see you now! You should look in a mirror, boy! You have company!”

The elementalist looks in a shiny piece of ice to see that the pupils of his eyes now have flames licking behind them. “What is this?”

The blue mage becomes giddy “The prophecy is coming true! The planes will be undone! A ha ha ha! The Titans have Returned! All is lost! I’ve preserved them all for nothing!”

He waves his wand and all the ice begins to shatter. The party decides that it’s time to leave in a hurry with Shute grabbing the Codex on the way down…

They barely escape the tower through a back window before it collapses.

Return to the Watchtower [Encounter 17 (Skill Challenge)]

Again, they choose to re-enter the Feygrove via the Dragon’s Roost – and as the cross the mesa, the look down over Gardbury Downs to spy two groups of figures heading toward the Watchtower – the Winterhaven Garrison of maybe a dozen men and women, and a much larger (and quickly moving group leaving the front gate) group of Orcs, Ogres, and a Hill Giant to giving chase!

There is barely enough time to make it to the watchtower before the Orcs do…

They arrive just in time to meet the exhausted garrison. Agüero – who has been resisting direct combat with orcs of any sort for weeks, takes command of the Garrison…

… and quickly sets up an ambush by leveraging their camouflaged armor and hiding them in the surrounding overgrowth.

Shute does likewise with the other flank…

And the mages set up in the tower to provide ranged cover, as well as support the Winterhaven medic.

The elves man the ballista on the tower roof and provide a line around the tower as the enemy arrive en-masse!

As combat is joined, the orcs focus on the elves, hoping to quickly break into the tower that seems so lightly defended.

Once most engaged with the elves, the Witnerhaven guard are ordered to leap from their cover and attack!

Agüero hangs back carefully watching the tide of battle before choosing his next strategy.

The ambush throws the Orcs into chaos…

Winterhaven’s defenders fight bravely buying time for the mages and roof-troops to rain death upon the orcs.

But then the heavy units arrive: Ogres and a Hill Giant.

Agüero sees that he’s going to “need a bigger weapon” to defeat these foes, so he charges into the tower.

The Orcs rally – the Hill Giant is their champion…

And, with the throw of a single humongous bolder, the giant shatters the front door of the watchtower…

The Ogres and the Orcs rush through..

Agüero tells his plan to the mages as he is running up the stairs – and quickly reaches the top of the tower.

“All weapons fire on that Hill Giant, NOW! And just dump that broken ballista over onto his head!”

At the same time as the arrows and bolts shower down, the mages let loose with their most powerful magics…

… slaying the Hill Giant in a most painful and agonizing way.

The Orcs and Ogres once again become demoralized, having seen their champion defeated in humiliation, slowly retreat out through the crack in the wall – into the Downs.

Agüero: “If we’re going to take down their leader Bakrosh, now is the time. They have to take the long way around – we could cut through the Feygrove and get there minutes before they can reinforce his position! Let’s go!”